WATCH LIST: September 2016

By Observer Staff

Culture

September 2016

A lighthouse keeper (Michael Fassbender) and his wife (Alicia Vikander) are raising a baby girl rescued from the ocean waves, and they have everything they’ve ever wanted. But after they meet the real mother (Rachel Weisz), who believes her daughter drowned, the couple have a heart-wrenching decision to make. Sept. 2

The Spawning Grounds BY GAIL ANDERSON-DARGATZ (Knopf Canada)

Giller-shortlisted author Gail Anderson-Dargatz returns with a family saga that takes place in the Thompson-Shuswap region of British Columbia. The river is drying up, threatening the salmon. At the same time, things start to go wrong for the teenage great-grandchildren of the man who usurped the land as they struggle with a tarnished family past and the possibility of reconciliation. Sept. 6

Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost My Faith and Found It Again Through Science BY MIKE McHARGUE (The Crown Publishing Group)

Once an evangelical Christian, Mike McHargue had moved away from his upbringing to become an atheist. But one day, standing on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, he started to draw connections between the waves, God and science. In this memoir, he tells the story of coming back to faith, and how he has come to see God in subatomic particles, deep space and the human brain. Sept. 13

Genetically modified corn is practically everywhere. But when author Caitlin Shetterly’s doctor recommended she eliminate it from her diet in response to a mysterious allergic reaction, her symptoms vanished. In this book-length expansion of an Elle magazine feature, Shetterly digs deep into the production, consumption and controversy of the world’s most ubiquitous staple. Sept. 20

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by Kristy Woudstra

Editorials

by Jocelyn Bell

Video

by Observer Staff

Anne Bokma left the Dutch Reformed Church as a young adult and eventually became a member of the United Church and then the Unitarian Universalists. Having long explored the "spiritual but not religious" demographic as a writer, she decided to immerse herself in practices — like hiring a soul coach, secular choir-singing and forest bathing — for 12 months to find both enlightenment and entertainment.

A preacher’s kid pretended to be a devout daughter, but secretly she felt lost in a wilderness of doubt.

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